Parliament’s Brexit rebuke
Vote to boost May deal fails
British Prime Minister Theresa May suffered another defeat by lawmakers Thursday in a vote that left her bid to secure a European Union divorce deal stuck between an intransigent EU and a resistant UK Parliament — with Brexit just six weeks away.
The House of Commons voted 303 to 258 against a motion reiterating support for May’s approach to Brexit — support expressed by lawmakers in votes just two weeks ago.
The defeat is symbolic rather than binding but shows how weak May’s hand is as she tries to secure changes to her deal in order to win backing for it in Parliament.
The government was defeated when hard-line pro-Brexit lawmakers in the governing Conservative Party abstained because they feel the government is effectively ruling out the threat of leaving the European Union without an agreement on departure terms and future relations, a move they say undermines Britain’s bargaining position.
“Conservative [members of Parliament] really ought not to be associated with anything, express or implied, which seems to take ‘no deal’ off the table,” Brexit-backing Conservative lawmaker Steve Baker tweeted before the vote.
Pro-EU lawmakers in Britain’s divided Parliament feel the opposite.
They fear time is running out to seal a deal before Britain topples off a cliff. But the House of Commons on Thursday rejected two amendments from the opposition that sought to postpone Brexit or steer the UK away from the “no-deal” cliff ’s edge.
Lawmakers intent on averting a “no-deal” Brexit are gathering forces to make a push in a new series of votes on Feb. 27 to force the government’s hand.
By then, Brexit will be only a month away.
Jeremy Corbyn, who heads the main opposition Labour Party, accused May of sitting on her hands, “hoping that something will turn up that will save the day and save her face.”
May is struggling with little sign of success to win backing for her deal from both pro-Brexit and pro-EU lawmakers in Parliament, which rejected the agreement by a whopping 230 votes last month.
International Trade Secretary Liam Fox, a prominent Brexit supporter in May’s Cabinet, had warned that a government defeat, though not legally binding, would send the “wrong signals” to the EU.
May has refused to take a “no-deal” Brexit off the table as she attempts to win concessions from the EU. Most businesses and economists say the British economy would be severely damaged if the country crashed out of the bloc on the scheduled Brexit date of March 29 without a deal.